Yet another (very) belated Monkey Monday post 20 January 2010 3:47 pm
Posted by Tracy in : Marion Nestle,consumerism,eating,fangirl,food snobbery,geekery,media,monkeys,news,nyc,politics,random,reading,school,writing , trackbackAll right, it’s my first day of spring term, so I’d better close some browser tabs and make ready to go back to school. I think I’m getting into the right headspace: for instance, when I saw the Salon Food feature about whether Indian food will finally get trendy this year, my first thought was, “I wonder if (NYU food studies professor) Krishnendu Ray has seen this.” Only then of course it turned out that he was the very expert interviewed for the article. Go figure?
Likewise, I thought of Marion Nestle when I spotted the above-the fold front-page story about the FDA taking another look at bisphenol-A (BPA) in Saturday’s New York Times. Of course, she’s all over this story and the BPA issue in general. Personally, I’m just relieved to see coverage of this story beyond “here’s what you, personally, should do if you only care about the health of you and your family, forget the rest of the world.” I can’t tell you how crazy it makes me when I hear people who learn about the health risk of the month and respond by buying new water bottles or whatever, instead of recognizing a problem that needs a bigger political solution. Sheesh.
Speaking of looking at the big picture, Ruth Reichl recently blogged a wonderful retort to the joyless folks who criticize writing about “frivolities” like delicious food, especially in the face of disasters like the Haitian earthquake and its aftermath (also taken down: Caitlin Flanagan’s anti-school garden blatherings — although, full disclosure, I don’t link to the latter because I haven’t bothered to read it because bleauuuurrgh). Long story short: tragedies actually make it all the more important for us to enjoy whatever we can of life; doing otherwise only makes everything that much worse. Amen, lady. Also, thank you for Twittering the extremely tasty-looking pudding recipe that led me to your blog and the “Why I Write About Food” post.
Another interesting big-picture item: New School professor Nevin Cohen’s encyclopedic blog post guide to NYC agencies that might contribute to food systems policy. Fantastico! And way to remind me to register for Public Policy for Metropolitan Regions already.
On that note, I think I’ll end this post here and start suiting up to go to campus, which I think means reluctantly taking the Virgin Atlantic “Upper Class” tag off my Chrome bag. Alas. Coming up on Foto Friday: adventures in flying super-schmancy style. Tomorrow: more randomness.
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Cj
